Letters

Thank you for the article in your GOLF PLUS 10TH ANNIVERSARY issue setting the record straight on Vijay Singh (Paying It Forward, March 23). I've played in pro-ams with several touring pros and once had the privilege of playing with Vijay. He was delightful, engaging, funny--and helpful. Many pros won't help read putts, but Vijay was interested in all of his playing partners' games.Edward C. DeLashmutt, Omaha

Singh has always displayed enormous class on the golf course, and gaining an insight into his actions and demeanor off the course makes me that much more of a fan.L.C. DickensBurlington, Ky.

The Scales of Justice

Jennifer Besler's case in Starving for a Win (SCORECARD, April 5) was not about the power coaches have over kids, it was about the power lawyers have in our society. This frivolous lawsuit, which initially saw Besler awarded $1.47 million because her coach had told her to lose 10 pounds, and which has since been overturned, is another example of political correctness (and greedy lawyers) run amok. A coach telling a player to lose weight to be faster and quicker is not an unreasonable request.Tony Collins, Tokyo

My duty as a high school football and ice hockey coach is to motivate my players to be the best possible athletes they can be. If losing 10 pounds will make them "faster, a better player," then suggesting proper diet and exercise to attain those goals is exactly what I should be doing.Scott Phillips, Toronto

Back when I was in high school, my basketball coach encouraged me to lose weight in an effort to make me quicker. I am 5'10" with an athletic build and was about 150-155 pounds at that time. I lost about 10 pounds, and while I never developed a full-blown eating disorder, his request did trigger an unhealthy obsession with food and exercise that's lasted for almost 20 years. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if my former coach had helped me improve my game instead of focusing on weight.T. Flanagan, Chevy Chase, Md.

The Media and the Masters

Alan Shipnuck's Taking on The Times (GOLF PLUS MASTERS PREVIEW, April 6) is a fascinating expose of how a powerful media organization exploited the Martha Burk-Hootie Johnson debacle in an attempt to influence public opinion about a social issue--women's rights--that is best advanced in another context. The importance of the media in shaping public opinion affects issues far beyond the scope of sports and has particular importance in this year's presidential election.Andrew T. Semmelman, Landenberg, Pa.

When considering the function of the press in a free society, even the sports press, we too often view "free" as synonymous with "unbiased." That is simply not the case. Shipnuck has done a great service in bringing fair and balanced reporting to your pages, and hopefully readers on both sides of the Hootie-Martha debate will learn from it.Andrew Helmboldt, Battle Creek, Mich.

Pounding Sand

Boohoo for Jeff Maggert. He's upset because the bunker--the one that's supposed to penalize players--wasn't perfectly raked and didn't afford him the ideal lie (Sand Storm, April 6). How ridiculous. What the PGA Tour needs to do is institute a policy in which no bunker is ever raked. The sand is a hazard, and should be played as such. With footprints and craters in every bunker, we'd definitely see a reduction in the number of players who lay up into the bunker to avoid the rough.Joe Wanninger, Indianapolis

Remembering Arnie

In the June 17, 1963, issue, you printed my letter in response to Palmer Gets Fit to Fight Again (June 3, 1963). In that letter I wrote, "He'll come back to beat Nicklaus, Player and everyone else." Having just read End of an Affair (April 6), I'm happy to say he did.Rande Wayne SmithBartlett, Ill.

Cardinal Sin

It's obvious in your poll of Illinoisians that you didn't talk to anyone outside the Chicagoland area (Sports in America, April 5). Otherwise, you'd have found out what the rest of the state and all the Midwest already knows: The Cubs-Cards rivalry is second to none and goes back 120 years. When you are born, you are either one or the other and root for that team forever, unconditionally. I have been a Cardinals fan since birth and proud of it.Matt Brahler, Ofallon, Ill.

William Nack seems to suffer from viewing the past through today's perspective (Sweet and Sauer, April 5). He refers to Wrigley Field in 1952 as "the spiritual center of sports in Illinois." However, the White Sox had higher attendance than the Cubs in 1952, as they also had in '51, and as they had in 14 of the following 15 years. It may have been his spiritual sports center, but it wasn't mine or that of many other residents of Illinois.Graham Smith, Wheaton, Ill.

Where's Otto?

It's rough when Otto Graham can't crack your list of Illinois's six alltime best sports figures. Automatic Otto, Waukegan's pride and joy, with his four AAFC and three NFL titles in a 10-year Hall of Fame career as quarterback of the Cleveland Browns, should have warranted some sort of mention.Marc Jenkins, Waukegan, Ill.

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything